The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-04-01
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Words OF Cheer and Consolation
for the Dishoartened.
Chrias the Great Exemplar-He Who Asks
Shall ltecsive-Delsys Arc Danger.
, ous-Thriliing and Apt
Illustrations.

L Ou9-EnftHtoS anu APPS
Illustrations.
Rsv. 7. Dewitt Tafmage preached on q
recent Sabbath in tho Second Presby.
terrain Church at Kansas City, No, baing
on visit to that city. His subjsct was
'sCheer for tho Disheartened," his text
teing:S
No man cared for my soul-rsalm, cxiii., l.
Mr.. Talmage said:
David, the rubicund lad, had become
the battle-worn warrior. Three thousand
armed men in pursuit Of him, he had hidden
in the cave Of Engedi, near tho coast Of
the Dead sea. Utterly tagged out with
the pursuit as you have often been worn
out with the trials of life, he sat down
and cried out:
No man cared for my soul
If you should fall through hatchway,
or slip through scafrolding. or drop
through a skylight. there would be hun
dreds Of people who would come around
and pick up your body and carry it to the
home or 10 the hospital. saw great
crowd of people in the street, and asked |:
"What is the matterl'
And found out that poor laboring
man had fallen under sunstrokc. and all
our eyes were fllled with tears at the
thought of his distracted wife and DESC
lated home.
We are all sympathetic with physical
disaster. but how little sympathy for spir-
itual woes. There are men in this house
who have come to middle-life who have
never yet been once personally accosted
about their eternal welfare. A great SER
mon dropped into an audience of hundreds
of thousands will do its work; bat if this
world is ever to be brought to God it will
be- through little sermons preached by pri-
vate Christians to AN audience
of one. The SISTERS letter, post
marked at the viliage--the word ut
tered in your hearing, half of smiles and
half of tears-the religious postscript to a
business lettcr-the carl left a: the door
when you had some kind of trouble-the
anxious look OF some one across chur ch
aisle while an earnest sermon was being
preached, swung You into the kingdom of
God.
But there are hundreds of people in this
house who will Ia &c the word that David
used in the past tense and employ it in the
present tense. AMI cry out:
mo man cares for my soul"
You feel as you go out day by day in
the tug and iostle OF life that it is every
man for himself You can endure the
pressure of commercial FAIRS, and would
consider it impertinent for any one to ask
you whether you are making or losing
money. But there have been times when
you would have drawn your check for
thousands of dollars il some one would
only help your soul out Of rs perplexities.
There arc questions about your higher
destiny that ache, and distract and agOn.
lie you at times. Let no one suppose that
because you are busy all day with hard.
ware, or dry goods or groceries, or grain
that your thoughts are no longer than
your yard-stick and stop at tho brass.
headed nails OF tho store counter. When
you speak once about religious things you
think five thousand times.
They call you wording. You are rot
a wording. OF course you are industrious
and keep busy. but you have had your
eyes opened to the realities of the next
world. You are not a fool. You know
better than any one can tell you that a
few years u: most will wind up your
earthly engagements and that you Will
take residence in distant sphere where
all your business adrOitness wo3ld be q
You sometimes think till
your head aches about great religious sub
jects. You go down the street with your
eyes fixed on the pavement, oblivious OF
the passing multitudcs, your thoughts
gone on eternal expedition. You
wonder if the Bible be true; how
much of it is literal and how much is tiyu-
rativc: if Christ be God: if there is any
thing like reiributioa: if you are immor-
tai: if resurrection will ever take place;
what the occupation of your departed kin
irei is: what You will be ten thousand
years from now. With cultured PLACID
l;y OF coUn'eaanco you are on fire with
lgtat:onS of soul
On. this solitary anxiety of yonr whole
lifetime! You have sod goods to or
brought them from Christian peop.c for
ten years, and they have never whispered
)nc word of spiritual counsel You have
passed up and down the aisies of churches
with men who knew that you had NJ hope
Of Heaven, and tall. d about the weather,
AID about your physical health, and about
Every thing hut that concerning which
you most wanted to hear them sneak,
namely, your everlasting spirit. Tines
without number have you felt in your
tcart, il you have not uttered it with your
Lips:
NO man cares Tor nv soul"
There have been times when You were
pliab bic on the great subject of
religion. " was so. for instance, after |
'Ou had lost your property. You had a
great many letters blowing you up for be- |
ng unfortunate. You showed that there
lal been concateaation Of circum stanc-
s, aud that insolvency WAS no fault Of |
ours. Your creditors talked to you as |
hough they would have hundred cents
N doll:r or, ycur life. Protest after pro-
est turlbl,d in on your desk. Men who |
'sed to take your hand with both of |
heirs and shake it violently, now pass
'ou on the street with an almost imper-
epti6le nod. After SIX or eight |
ours Of scaldiny business anxiety you
20 home, and you shut the door, |
nd throw yourself on the sofa, an l you
eel in state OF despair. You wish that
enc one woull come in and break up the
loom. Every thing seems to be against
ou. The bank against You. Your cred
tors against you. Yoar friends suddenly
ccomc critical against you. All the
asst against you. All the future against
GU. You make reproachful outcry:
mo man cares for my soul"
There was another occasion when all the
cors Of your heart swung open for sacred
,fiuenccs. a brigh. light went out in
our household. Within three or four
avs there we e compressed sickness,
cath, o5seQu es. You were SO lonely
hat hundred people coming into
he house did Lot break the sol
ariness. You are almost killed BY the
omestic calamity. a few formal, per-
unc,ory words of consolation were ut
,red on the stairs, before you went to the
rave, hut you wanted some one to come
nd talk over the whole matter, and reclte
he alleviatio1s, and dec;pher the lessons
the dark bereavement No one came.
[any time you could not sleep until two
{ tire, O'Clock in the morning and than | ,